Microwaves may be used in industrial processing applications for heating or drying applications or to modify materials under treatment in some other way. In one application of microwave processing, for example, microwaves are used to exfoliate vermiculite by interacting with water found between layers of the material to cause expansion of the material.
Magnetrons are microwave generators suitable for industrial processing purposes. In one type of processing system, a conveyor carries material along a line and several processing stages take place at different locations. Magnetrons may be set up at appropriate places in a processing line so that they are close to where the microwave processing is required. However, this may not always be convenient or feasible because of the spatial requirements for each magnetron and its ancillary components. One solution is to locate magnetrons remotely from the line and construct waveguides to deliver the output of a magnetron to where it is required.